History KarmaHoudini / ComicBooks

* ''ComicBook/WillEisnersWonderMan'': General Attila gets off scot-free for killing refugees and starving his people, with his only punishment being a scar on his face from Wonder Man.

** ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'': Subverted. Torquemada uses assassination and intimidation tactics during his trial to scare the jury into declaring him "not guilty" on the charges of crimes against existence. The free human government hands him over to his arch-enemy Nemesis instead.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'': Patch, Antoine's MirrorUniverse counterpart. He impersonated Antoine for a year, tried to trick Sally into marrying him in order to gain the throne, and poisoned both Antoine's father and King Max, killing the former and rendering the latter crippled and senile. Despite all the damage he ends up causing, Patch is neither arrested by the [[GuardianOfTheMultiverse Zone Cops]] or imprisoned by the Kingdom of Acorn; the worst punishment he receives is Sonic dumping him back on Moebius after blowing his cover.

* ''The Adventures of WesternAnimation/MightyMax'' comic: While Master Brain's automated weapons were destroyed and thus stopping his scheme to KillAllHumans, he gets away with no repercussions.
%%* Mr. Gone from ''ComicBook/TheMaxx'' is pointedly given a happy ending.

* Moose Mason from ComicBook/ArchieComics. He beats up any guy who so much as looks at his girlfriend Midge, sometimes even sending guys to the hospital, and never gets any punishment at all for his violence. Worst of all was the time when he went so far as to [[SuperPersistentPredator spend]] ''[[SuperPersistentPredator several days]]'' [[SuperPersistentPredator hunting down Reggie Mantle, not stopping until he finally got the chance to beat him up]]. [[MoralEventHorizon That goes beyond bullying and enters the realm of pure sadism.]] Of course, Moose ''is'' an idiot, possibly even intellectually disabled. So he presumably can't be held responsible for what he does, and the other characters just tend to see it as ExitPursuedByABear. (Or maybe it's just that most other characters think [[{{Jerkass}} Reggie has it coming]]; he's rarely an innocent in any such conflict.)
** Averted in, of all things, ''Predator Versus Archie''. Dilton comes to understand the essential nature of the world he lives in. Teenage dating. Then he loses his head five minutes later.

* Considering that DeathIsCheap and villains easily escape from prison in most comic books, and the fact that comics are generally written as unending serials, this trope is pretty much the rule rather than the exception.

* ComicBook/{{Elektra}} is one, despite the fact that the fanbase loves her. She murdered loads of innocents (for example SHIELD agents). Of course she kills mostly {{Redshirts}} that are armed with some weapons, which seems to be justified by the fact that as they are armed she is allowed to fight them. Of course, as a ninja she could use non-lethal methods, but doesn't care. When she is confronted about this, she murders the rogue agent who hunts Elektra to avenge her friends that Elektra murdered. Despite all this the heroes of Franchise/MarvelUniverse have no problem hanging out with her - the same people who can not stand being anywhere near ComicBook/{{Punisher}}, who didn't even kill HAMMER troops even though they counld be considered Mooks - he still considered them federal agents, even though their agency made FaceHeelTurn. Elektra did not give that much care.
** Many of these SHIELD agents have gone rogue or are just plain evil. SHIELD is commonly infiltrated by evil bastards. Granted, in at least one instance Elektra killed a shipload of SHIELD agents but she was deep undercover for Fury. DEEP undercover. Yes, Fury sanctioned the murder of a Helicarrier full of his own men. Sigh.
* ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'': ''ComicBook/LexLuthor'' commits awful crimes -- which include the murder of baby [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kal-El]], getting Barbara Gordon's parents killed, and who knows what else -- but ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' and ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'' only manage to expose publicly one of his crimes. And Barbara knows that he will buy his way out of jail.
* In Creator/MarkWaid's grisly mini-series ''ComicBook/{{Empire}}'', supervillain Golgoth rules all humanity with an iron fist ([[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor yet finds it's not everything he thought it'd be]]). Even as his problems mount, though, [[LaResistance the Resistance]] finds itself abandoned by its allies and betrayed from within (their fancy new weapons don't work). Oops. Golgoth manages to snap out of his funk long enough to personally crush the last embers of freedom. He ''is'' forced to snap his daughter's neck after seeing how his lifestyle has turned her into a monster, but this probably counts as the token loss.
* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'':
** Gepetto in ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' runs an evil empire killing thousands of beings, and enslaving millions. After his empire comes crashing down, the good guys offer him amnesty and move him into an apartment in New York City with all amenities paid. Which was what all the Fables got.
** Bigby Wolf, the lovable rogue sheriff? Used to eat villages for the giggles. Not villagers, mind you. Entire villages. Not a nice man...wolf.
** Heck, most of the characters in ''Fables'' did horrible things but in the Real World their crimes are in the past, by Fabletown decree. Anything they do now is punished. The Three Little Pigs mutiny and two are guillotined.
** In "The Last Jack Tale," Jack of Fables is finally caught by a lot of devils he cheated on deals for his soul, and imprisoned on a barren planet. [[spoiler: However, he spends his time there thinking up and writing down ''every'' detail of a world exactly to his liking "without all those consequences," and when he's ready, he summons his old friend the Pathetic Fallacy, and makes it real, to spend eternity in his version of Paradise.]]

* ''ComicBook/HeroesInCrisis'' does end with [[spoiler:Wally West jailed for the deaths that occurred at Sanctuary. Meanwhile, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman receive ''absolutely no punishment at all'' for the fact their half-assing of Sanctuary and abdication of the work to an abusive computer program led to multiple heroes being psychologically tortured and abused (in fact, Wally's nervous breakdown happened due to the way Sanctuary treated so all the deaths that occurred were technically their fault) and are allowed to just keep running Sanctuary as is with the excuse they apparently have no other options. Meanwhile, Lois Lane also receives no punishment for publishing all of the secrets and private information Wally sent her during his suicidal breakdown, despite that realistically the Daily Planet should've received a civil liberties lawsuit and Lois herself should've been fired for such a ''massive'' violation of ethics.]]

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'': After spreading chaos and destruction all over the galaxy, and enslaving a whole sentient race, Darkseid just teleports himself and his power base away when his mind control upon the Daxamites gets broken.
* This is what caused the creation of Kate Spencer's ComicBook/{{Manhunter}}: when the metahuman serial killer Copperhead is let free because they treated his metahuman status as an excuse for his murders, she gets so fed up with the Houdini pulled here that she decided to settle things personally.
* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, ObstructiveBureaucrat Henry Peter Gyrich has been involved in all manner of shady to outright illegal things over the years due to his raging FantasticRacism, but has largely escaped any meaningful punishment -- the worst thing that ever happened to him in the comics was getting fired after ''ComicBook/CivilWar'', at which point he was swiftly picked up for ''another'' secret government project. This despite the fact he has been involved in the creation of the [[KillerRobot Sentinels]] and the fact he nearly got humanity killed in the events of ''ComicBook/RomSpaceKnight''.
** Zigzagged for his counterpart from the [[WesternAnimation/XMen 1990s X-Men cartoon]]; being the man behind the Sentinel project backfired on him majorly after the Sentinels [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters went rogue]], kidnapped President Kelly and tried to turn him into a cyborg drone, as shown in the 4th season episode "Courage", where he and Bolivar Trask[[note]]the scientist who actually built the Sentinels[[/note]] are shown living in hiding in an isolated jungle cabin somewhere in South America to avoid prison. However, the series finale has him somehow being allowed back into the United States to give televised debates on mutants...although, when he attacks Xavier with a prototype power nullifier that nearly kills him, he ''is'' shown being dragged out of the room by security.

* ''ComicBook/NewWarriors'' featured a villain team called Eugenix, whose goal was to improve the human race by killing or sterilizing everyone they deemed genetically inferior. Their last appearance was in the second issue of volume two, where they escaped the New Warriors to continue their plans without punishment.

* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'':
** Mr. Prast receives no onscreen comeuppance for raping and abusing Klara.
** At the end of Creator/TerryMoore's arc, Val Rhymin manages to escape punishment for trying to bring about a ZombieApocalypse in Malibu.

* In ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheImmortalSuperman'', [[ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes the Time Trapper]], gets away with preventing Superman from going back to his own time, since Superman does not even figure out someone is messing up with him.

* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] and [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-Zagged]] at the end of ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'', where nobody's really sure what's gonna happen to the BigBad after he has been exposed to the public. His considerable wealth is allowing him to pay people off left and right to avoid indictment for his many crimes, but there's just ''so many'' people out for his blood now that he's bound to run out of money eventually, [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty and when that happens]]...

* Ultimate Reed Richards[=/=]The Maker. Even after everything he did to Europe and Asgard, he's given no real punishment, and is even allowed to go back to working for S.H.I.E.L.D. by Nick Fury. When the Ultimate Universe is destroyed by an Incursion, Reed manages to survive on-board a life raft, escaping to Battleworld. After what goes down there, he somehow managed to get out and into the new Marvel Universe afterward, where he restarts his mad science anew.
* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', in which the WellIntentionedExtremist commits a massive act of unadulterated ''[[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans mass murder]]'' and not only gets away with it scot-free, but is actually aided in covering it up by the heroes - because to expose the scheme would endanger the world even more. Although it's left open to interpretation whether or not his plan will ultimately succeed: before chasing Adrian, and with strong suspicions about his plan, Rorschach left his personal notes at the local newspaper. In the last page, after the HappyEnding, a guy in the newspaper reaches towards a stack of papers ("the crank file"). The diary is near the top. TheEndOrIsIt.
** In the film adaptation he at least gets given a damn good beating from Dan and a lecture on why his actions were wrong. Of course, he knows his actions are '''wrong,''' but inaction would have been catastrophic.
** It is left ambiguous whether he will ultimately be able to live with his actions. He reveals to Dr. Manhattan that he has been having nightmares in which he becomes a monster despite his intentions ''(Yes, that's another parallel to the Black Freighter story),'' and essentially asks whether what he did was right, since it ended well; since he's talking to Dr. Manhattan, the response is, naturally, "Nothing ''ever'' ends, Adrian." The look on his face after that, which is the last panel in which we see him, indicates that he is extremely unsure of himself by that point. He mentioned feeling the weight of the dead on his shoulders.
* Mime & Marionette from the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' sequel ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock''. Despite being a thorn in Ozymandias, Rorschach, Batman, and The Comedian's sides in both their world and DC's, they are left unscathed by the end of the comic series, even taking over Nite Owl's former ship Archie as their mobile home for their unborn daughter. Justified as Ozymandias believes that Doctor Manhattan will grant the couple mercy as a reminder of himself sparing the couple before for having their (yet future) son be given to his former lover's family (which it happens), and that the couple will need to remain in the DC universe as an 'anchor' so that their son can traverse from the Watchmen world into the DC world.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': In the Pre-Crisis continuity Paula von Gunther is able to leave the Nazis and come to America to help out the war effort after the rescue of her daughter--whom the Nazis kept hostage to get her to work for them--and face no repercussions for the many atrocities she committed while working with the Axis powers and she was not remorseful about the lives she ruined and ended in the service of the Nazis.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'':
*** Vanessa Kapatelis/Silver Swan III was never legally punished for her acts of destruction or murdering [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassandra Sandsmark]]’s friends after destroying her school. Then again, she was brainwashed into doing it so punishing her would be rather cruel. On the other hand, Circe, who was behind Vanessa's brainwashing, was imprisoned.
*** Widow Sazia orchestrates and wins a brutal mob war and the closest thing she gets to punishment was The Joker taking an interest and forcing her to work with him in chains for a couple of days which she escapes at the first opportunity.
** ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'': Tomas Byde (aka the Duke of Deception) faces no repercussions beyond his own guilt after the Lasso of Truth forces him to face the truth of how he was misled and the thousands he has killed to aid the Nazis because of it. He is able to leave and traverse the Earth and then go off to confront Ares instead of making any kind of reparations for what he did.

* The ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comics had a few:

* Pretty much any elf in ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' gets this one, but not for lack of trying or because the story exonerates them for their crimes: it's because a ''living'' elf is much less dangerous than a dead one. The closest anyone comes to getting properly punished for their misdeeds are Winnowill and Rayek, whose eternal punishment is, essentially, being stuck with each other for the rest of Rayek's (eternal, unless he's killed) life.

* In the ComicBook/MarvelUniverse, ObstructiveBureaucrat Henry Peter Gyrich has been involved in all manner of shady to outright illegal things over the years due to his raging FantasticRacism, but has largely escaped any meaningful punishment -- the worst thing that ever happened to him in the comics was getting fired after ''ComicBook/CivilWar'', at which point he was swiftly picked up for ''another'' secret government project. This despite the fact he has been involved in the creation of the [[KillerRobot Sentinels]] and the fact he nearly got humanity killed in the events of ''ComicBook/RomSpaceKnight''.

* Gepetto in ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' runs an evil empire killing thousands of beings, and enslaving millions. After his empire comes crashing down, the good guys offer him amnesty and move him into an apartment in New York City with all amenities paid. Which was what all the Fables got. Bigby Wolf, the lovable rogue sheriff? Used to eat villages for the giggles. Not a nice man...wolf.
** Not villagers, mind you. Entire villages. Heck, most of the characters in ''Fables'' did horrible things but in the Real World their crimes are in the past. Anything they do now is punished. The Three Little Pigs mutiny and two are guillotined.
** [[spoiler: In "The Last Jack Tale," Jack of Fables is finally caught by a lot of devils he cheated on deals for his soul, and imprisoned on a barren planet. However, he spends his time there thinking up and writing down ''every'' detail of a world exactly to his liking "without all those consequences," and when he's ready, he summons his old friend the Pathetic Fallacy, and makes it real, to spend eternity in his version of Paradise.]]

** PJ Maybe in ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' is a gleeful serial killer and one of the worst criminals the Big Meg has ever seen. How does his story end? He uses his impersonation skills to get himself elected mayor. Interestingly, since then, he's used his position to do quite a lot of genuinely good work, such as increasing employment, supporting mutant rights, and most recently working to eliminate [[PresidentEvil Chief Judge Sinfield]]. All while keeping up his passion for murder.

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'': Patch, Antoine's MirrorUniverse counterpart. He impersonated Antoine for a year, tried to trick Sally into marrying him in order to gain the throne, and poisoned both Antoine's father and King Max, killing the former and rendering the latter crippled and senile. Despite all the damage he ends up causing, Patch is neither arrested by the [[GuardianOfTheMultiverse Zone Cops]] or imprisoned by the Kingdom of Acorn; the worst punishment he receives is Sonic dumping him back on Moebius after blowing his cover.

* Comicbook/{{Elektra}} is one, despite the fact that the fanbase loves her. She murdered loads of innocents (for example SHIELD agents). Of course she kills mostly {{Redshirts}} that are armed with some weapons, which seems to be justified by the fact that as they are armed she is allowed to fight them. Of course, as a ninja she could use non-lethal methods, but doesn't care. When she is confronted about this, she murders the rogue agent who hunts Elektra to avenge her friends that Elektra murdered. Despite all this the heroes of MarvelUniverse have no problem hanging out with her - the same people who can not stand being anywhere near Comicbook/{{Punisher}}, who didn't even kill HAMMER troops even though they counld be considered Mooks - he still considered them federal agents, even though their agency made FaceHeelTurn. Elektra did not give that much care.

* ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'': ''Comicbook/LexLuthor'' commits awful crimes -- which include the murder of baby [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kal-El]], getting Barbara Gordon's parents killed, and who knows what else -- but ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' and ''Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}'' only manage to expose publicly one of his crimes. And Barbara knows that he will buy his way out of jail.

** Not villagers, mind you. Entire villages. Heck, most of the characters in Fables did horrible things but in the Real World their crimes are in the past. Anything they do now is punished. The Three Little Pigs mutiny and two are guillotined.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars: Comicbook/{{Legacy}}'', most of the truly heinous villains, namely [[BigBad Darth Krayt]], [[TheDragon Darth Wyyrlok]], [[TheBrute Darth Stryfe]], [[GeneralRipper Darth Rauder]], and genocidal [[MadScientist Vul Isen]] ''do'' receive punishment, several secondary antagonists including Darths Nihl, Talon, Havoc, and Maladi, and Sith Apprentice Saarai decide to say ScrewThisImOuttaHere at the deaths of their superiors and return this Sith to their Sidious-era ways of subterfuge rather than the all-out war Krayt espoused. As such, they avoid any comeuppance, and with the 2014 reworking of the franchise's continuity policy, it seems likely to stay that way.

%%* Mr. Gone from ''Comicbook/TheMaxx'' is pointedly given a happy ending.

* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}''

* ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', in which the WellIntentionedExtremist commits a massive act of unadulterated ''[[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans mass murder]]'' and not only gets away with it scot-free, but is actually aided in covering it up by the heroes - because to expose the scheme would endanger the world even more. Although it's left open to interpretation whether or not his plan will ultimately succeed: before chasing Adrian, and with strong suspicions about his plan, Rorschach left his personal notes at the local newspaper. In the last page, after the HappyEnding, a guy in the newspaper reaches towards a stack of papers ("the crank file"). The diary is near the top. TheEndOrIsIt.

* Moose Mason from Franchise/ArchieComics. He beats up any guy who so much as looks at his girlfriend Midge, sometimes even sending guys to the hospital, and never gets any punishment at all for his violence. Worst of all was the time when he went so far as to [[SuperPersistentPredator spend]] ''[[SuperPersistentPredator several days]]'' [[SuperPersistentPredator hunting down Reggie Mantle, not stopping until he finally got the chance to beat him up]]. [[MoralEventHorizon That goes beyond bullying and enters the realm of pure sadism.]] Of course, Moose ''is'' an idiot, possibly even intellectually disabled. So he presumably can't be held responsible for what he does, and the other characters just tend to see it as ExitPursuedByABear. (Or maybe it's just that most other characters think [[{{Jerkass}} Reggie has it coming]]; he's rarely an innocent in any such conflict.)

* In Mark Waid's grisly mini-series ''ComicBook/{{Empire}}'', supervillain Golgoth rules all humanity with an iron fist ([[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor yet finds it's not everything he thought it'd be]]). Even as his problems mount, though, [[LaResistance the Resistance]] finds itself abandoned by its allies and betrayed from within (their fancy new weapons don't work). Oops. Golgoth manages to snap out of his funk long enough to personally crush the last embers of freedom. He ''is'' forced to snap his daughter's neck after seeing how his lifestyle has turned her into a monster, but this probably counts as the token loss.
* Gepetto in ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'' runs an evil empire killing thousands of beings, and enslaving millions. After his empire comes crashing down, the good guys offer him amnesty and move him into an apartment in New York City with all amenities paid. Which was what all the Fables got. Bigby Wolf, the lovable rogue sheriff? Used to eat villages for the giggles. Not a nice man...wolf.

** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corrupt oil executive]] Trickler and international arms-dealer B. Mazaroff in ''The Broken Ear''. After manipulating two {{Banana Republic}}s to go to war over oil, working with Mazaroff, who selling weapons to both sides, framing Tintin for treason, and arranging him to be executed without trial, Trickler gets no comeuppance other than the embarrassment that the region he started a war over didn't have any oil at all.

** In the Pre-Crisis continuity Paula von Gunther is able to leave the Nazis and come to America to help out the war effort after the rescue of her daughter--whom the Nazis kept hostage to get her to work for them--and face no repercussions for the many atrocities she committed while working with the Axis powers and she was not remorseful about the lives she ruined and ended in the service of the Nazis.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Vanessa Kapatelis/Silver Swan III was never legally punished for her acts of destruction or murdering [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassandra Sandsmark]]’s friends after destroying her school.
*** Then again, she was brainwashed into doing it so punishing her wouldn't make any sense. On the other hand, Circe, who was behind Vanessa's brainwashing, was imprisoned.

* ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'':
** PJ Maybe in ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' is a gleeful serial killer and one of the worst criminals the Big Meg has ever seen. How does his story end? He uses his impersonation skills to get himself elected mayor. Interestingly, since then, he's used his position to do quite a lot of genuinely good work, such as increasing employment, supporting mutant rights, and most recently working to eliminate [[PresidentEvil Chief Judge Sinfield]]. All while keeping up his passion for murder.
** ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'': Subverted. Torquemada uses assassination and intimidation tactics during his trial to scare the jury into declaring him "not guilty" on the charges of crimes against existence. The free human government hands him over to his arch-enemy Nemesis instead.

* Ultimate Reed Richards[=/=]The Maker. Even after everything he did to Europe and Asgard, he's given no real punishment, and is even allowed to go back to working for S.H.I.E.L.D. by Nick Fury. When the Ultimate Universe is destroyed by an Incursion, Reed manages to survive on-board a life raft, escaping to Battleworld. After what goes down there, he somehow managed to get out and into the new Marvel Universe afterward, where he restarts his mad science anew.

* ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', in which the WellIntentionedExtremist commits a massive act of unadulterated ''[[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans mass murder]]'' and not only gets away with it scot-free, but is actually aided in covering it up by the heroes - because to expose the scheme would endanger the world even more. Although it's left open to interpretation whether or not his plan will ultimately succeed: before chasing Adrian, and with strong suspicions about his plan, Rorschach left his personal notes at the local newspaper. In the last page, after the HappyEnding, a guy in the newspaper reaches towards a stack of papers ("the crank file"). The diary is near the top. TheEndOrIsIt.
** In the film adaptation he at least gets given a damn good beating from Dan and a lecture on why his actions were wrong. Of course, he knows his actions are '''wrong,''' but inaction would have been catastrophic.
** It is left ambiguous whether he will ultimately be able to live with his actions. He reveals to Dr. Manhattan that he has been having nightmares in which he becomes a monster despite his intentions ''(Yes, that's another parallel to the Black Freighter story),'' and essentially asks whether what he did was right, since it ended well; since he's talking to Dr. Manhattan, the response is, naturally, "Nothing ''ever'' ends, Adrian." The look on his face after that, which is the last panel in which we see him, indicates that he is extremely unsure of himself by that point. He mentioned feeling the weight of the dead on his shoulders.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** In the Pre-Crisis continuity Paula von Gunther is able to leave the Nazis and come to America to help out the war effort after the rescue of her daughter--whom the Nazis kept hostage to get her to work for them--and face no repercussions for the many atrocities she committed while working with the Axis powers and she was not remorseful about the lives she ruined and ended in the service of the Nazis.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Vanessa Kapatelis/Silver Swan III was never legally punished for her acts of destruction or murdering [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassandra Sandsmark]]’s friends after destroying her school.
*** Then again, she was brainwashed into doing it so punishing her wouldn't make any sense. On the other hand, Circe, who was behind Vanessa's brainwashing, was imprisoned.
** ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'': Tomas Byde (aka the Duke of Deception) faces no repercussions beyond his own guilt after the Lasso of Truth forces him to face the truth of how he was misled and the thousands he has killed to aid the Nazis because of it. He is able to leave and traverse the Earth and then go off to confront Ares instead of making any kind of reparations for what he did.

* In Creator/WillEisner's graphic novel, ''ComicBook/AContractWithGod'', one of the stories focuses on the super of the tenant where the stories take place/centered around. While the super is a middle-aged, balding man with a somewhat bad attitude and a possibly unfriendly dog, he is played in a horrible con. While in his room (the walls of which are covered with pornographic pinups), the niece of one of his tenants enters his room, and offers to show him her panties for a nickel (the setting is in the 1950's) and asks if she can give the dog a treat. While the super's back is turned, the girl (who is twelve years old!) grabs his cashbox and poisons his dog to death. When the super catches up with the girl, she screams rape and everyone sees and the tenants call the police. When the police come for the super, he kills himself and everyone calls him a creep. The last scene we see is the girl counting the money she just stole, not a look of remorse on her face. It's a great story and everything and was probably written to spite UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode, but still.
* The ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' comics had a few:
** Thief Max Bird from ''The Secret of the Unicorn''. He threatened to torture Tintin for information and attempted to murder somebody. However, even though he was arrested, he manages to escape jail and, other than a brief mention, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse is never heard from again]]. But even assuming he managed to avoid being arrested again, he will have to avoid the police, maybe even leave the country, and does permanently lose his chateau, Marlinspike Hall, and presumably the larger part of his other assets.
** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corrupt oil executive]] Trickler and international arms-dealer B. Mazaroff in ''The Broken Ear''. After manipulating two {{Banana Republic}}s to go to war over oil, working with Mazaroff, who selling weapons to both sides, framing Tintin for treason, and arranging him to be executed without trial, Trickler gets no comeuppance other than the embarrassment that the region he started a war over didn't have any oil at all.
** This trope also applies to the Bordurian government. In ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' Syldavia is saved, but Borduria remains a threat in later adventures (despite World War II), even if the schemes launched by its secret agents continue to be foiled.
** The most notable example however is General Alcazar. Although both ''The Broken Ear'' and ''Tintin and the Picaros'' show that he is just as bad a dictator as his perennial rival, General Tapioca, but largely because he looks on Tintin as a friend, he does not really get his comeuppance. At the end of ''Tintin and the Picaros'', Tintin and Haddock try to persuade him to become a better ruler, but one has to wonder how long that will last. Especially as his conversation with Tapioca shows that he regards Tintin as a naive idealist.

* ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'':
** PJ Maybe in ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' is a gleeful serial killer and one of the worst criminals the Big Meg has ever seen. How does his story end? He uses his impersonation skills to get himself elected mayor. Interestingly, since then, he's used his position to do quite a lot of genuinely good work, such as increasing employment, supporting mutant rights, and most recently working to eliminate [[PresidentEvil Chief Judge Sinfield]]. All while keeping up his passion for murder.
** ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'': Subverted. Torquemada uses assassination and intimidation tactics during his trial to scare the jury into declaring him "not guilty" on the charges of crimes against existence. The free human government hands him over to his arch-enemy Nemesis instead.
* ''Shock [=SuspenStories=]'' ran a one-off strip in which a KarmaHoudini uses his influence as a newspaper reporter to blackmail people all over town. The story hints throughout at LaserGuidedKarma for the protagonist (this being a staple of the comic and similar titles published by EC) and then ends abruptly with him getting away with murder.

* Gepetto in ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'' runs an evil empire killing thousands of beings, and enslaving millions. After his empire comes crashing down, the good guys offer him amnesty and move him into an apartment in New York City with all amenities paid. Which was what all the Fables got. Bigby Wolf, the lovable rogue sheriff? Used to eat villages for the giggles. Not a nice man...wolf.
** Not villagers, mind you. Entire villages. Heck, most of the characters in Fables did horrible things but in the Real World their crimes are in the past. Anything they do now is punished. The Three Little Pigs mutiny and two are guillotined.
** [[spoiler: In "The Last Jack Tale," Jack of Fables is finally caught by a lot of devils he cheated on deals for his soul, and imprisoned on a barren planet. However, he spends his time there thinking up and writing down ''every'' detail of a world exactly to his liking "without all those consequences," and when he's ready, he summons his old friend the Pathetic Fallacy, and makes it real, to spend eternity in his version of Paradise.]]
* Moose Mason from Franchise/ArchieComics. He beats up any guy who so much as looks at his girlfriend Midge, sometimes even sending guys to the hospital, and never gets any punishment at all for his violence. Worst of all was the time when he went so far as to [[SuperPersistentPredator spend]] ''[[SuperPersistentPredator several days]]'' [[SuperPersistentPredator hunting down Reggie Mantle, not stopping until he finally got the chance to beat him up]]. [[MoralEventHorizon That goes beyond bullying and enters the realm of pure sadism.]] Of course, Moose ''is'' an idiot, possibly even intellectually disabled. So he presumably can't be held responsible for what he does, and the other characters just tend to see it as ExitPursuedByABear. (Or maybe it's just that most other characters think [[{{Jerkass}} Reggie has it coming]]; he's rarely an innocent in any such conflict.)
** Averted in, of all things, ''Predator Versus Archie''. Dilton comes to understand the essential nature of the world he lives in. Teenage dating. Then he loses his head five minutes later.

* Pretty much any elf in ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' gets this one, but not for lack of trying or because the story exonerates them for their crimes: it's because a ''living'' elf is much less dangerous than a dead one. The closest anyone comes to getting properly punished for their misdeeds are Winnowill and Rayek, whose eternal punishment is, essentially, being stuck with each other for the rest of Rayek's (eternal, unless he's killed) life.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars: Comicbook/{{Legacy}}'', most of the truly heinous villains, namely [[BigBad Darth Krayt]], [[TheDragon Darth Wyyrlok]], [[TheBrute Darth Stryfe]], [[GeneralRipper Darth Rauder]], and genocidal [[MadScientist Vul Isen]] ''do'' receive punishment, several secondary antagonists including Darths Nihl, Talon, Havoc, and Maladi, and Sith Apprentice Saarai decide to say ScrewThisImOuttaHere at the deaths of their superiors and return this Sith to their Sidious-era ways of subterfuge rather than the all-out war Krayt espoused. As such, they avoid any comeuppance, and with the 2014 reworking of the franchise's continuity policy, it seems likely to stay that way.
* Comicbook/{{Elektra}} is one, despite the fact that the fanbase loves her. She murdered loads of innocents (for example SHIELD agents). Of course she kills mostly {{Redshirts}} that are armed with some weapons, which seems to be justified by the fact that as they are armed she is allowed to fight them. Of course, as a ninja she could use non-lethal methods, but doesn't care. When she is confronted about this, she murders the rogue agent who hunts Elektra to avenge her friends that Elektra murdered. Despite all this the heroes of MarvelUniverse have no problem hanging out with her - the same people who can not stand being anywhere near Comicbook/{{Punisher}}, who didn't even kill HAMMER troops even though they counld be considered Mooks - he still considered them federal agents, even though their agency made FaceHeelTurn. Elektra did not give that much care.
** Many of these SHIELD agents have gone rogue or are just plain evil. SHIELD is commonly infiltrated by evil bastards. Granted, in at least one instance Elektra killed a shipload of SHIELD agents but she was deep undercover for Fury. DEEP undercover. Yes, Fury sanctioned the murder of a Helicarrier full of his own men. Sigh.
* ''ComicBook/TheBlackKnight'': Since ''Le Chevalier Noir'' can escape from any restraints no prison can hold him, and his true identity as a master thief has never been proven, he escapes any sort of consequences for his actions in both his appearances. However, the bitterness of this is lessened because [[GracefulLoser he's such a good sport about losing]].
* Ultimate Reed Richards[=/=]The Maker. Even after everything he did to Europe and Asgard, he's given no real punishment, and is even allowed to go back to working for S.H.I.E.L.D. by Nick Fury. When the Ultimate Universe is destroyed by an Incursion, Reed manages to survive on-board a life raft, escaping to Battleworld. After what goes down there, he somehow managed to get out and into the new Marvel Universe afterward, where he restarts his mad science anew.

* This is what caused the creation of Kate Spencer's ComicBook/{{Manhunter}}: when the metahuman serial killer Copperhead is let free because they treated his metahuman status as an excuse for his murders, she gets so fed up with the Houdini pulled here that she decided to settle things personally.

* ''ComicBook/ElKuraan'': The Pasha gets away scot-free with tricking an American into letting him be the middleman for buying off tribal lands, pocketing the cash and driving the tribe off the lands. All that our hero does is scare him shitless.
* ''ComicBook/KismetManOfFate'':
** {{Satan}} is never even directly confronted in-comic, let alone punished for masterminding World War II.
** Flame and Bruta escape after supplying Hitler with a super weapon that could win him the war.
** As the comic ended in 1943, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler makes a narrow escape from Kismet's wrath. However, if this universe follows history, he will get his comeuppance soon enough.
* ''ComicBook/PatPatriotAmericasJoanOfArc'': The Mallet, commander or a Japanese spy ring in China, escapes while Pat and the Chinese military take out his army. Given that the comic ends with an announcement that he's got a new scheme brewing, it can be presumed that ht would have become Pat's Arch-Enemy if the series didn't end.
* ''ComicBook/{{Gunsmoke}}'': Curly Joe vanished without a trace after massacring a rival gang over a silver mine long before a story where a former goon of his is a VillainOfTheWeek.

* ''ComicBook/SuperAmerican'': Murderous fascist Vultro flees in an airplane while Super-American isn't looking, promising to continue his plans of conquest.
* ''ComicBook/NewWarriors'' featured a villain team called Eugenix, whose goal was to improve the human race by killing or sterilizing everyone they deemed genetically inferior. Their last appearance was in the second issue of volume two, where they escaped the New Warriors to continue their plans without punishment.
* ''ComicBook/CaptainFlash'': The Mirror Man is never punished for all his murdering of scientists.
* Mime & Marionette from the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' sequel ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock''. Despite being a thorn in Ozymandias, Rorschach, Batman, and The Comedian's sides in both their world and DC's, they are left unscathed by the end of the comic series, even taking over Nite Owl's former ship Archie as their mobile home for their unborn daughter. Justified as Ozymandias believes that Doctor Manhattan will grant the couple mercy as a reminder of himself sparing the couple before for having their (yet future) son be given to his former lover's family (which it happens), and that the couple will need to remain in the DC universe as an 'anchor' so that their son can traverse from the Watchmen world into the DC world.

* Mime & Marionette from the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' sequel ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock''. Despite being a thorn in Ozymandias, Rorschach, Batman, and The Comedian's sides in both their world and DC's, they are left unscathed by the end of the comic series, even [[spoiler: taking over Nite Owl's former ship Archie as their mobile home for their unborn daughter]]. Justified as [[spoiler: Ozymandias thinks that Doctor Manhattan will grant the couple mercy as a reminder of himself sparing the couple before for having their (yet future) son be given to his former lover's family, and that the couple will need to remain in the DC universe as an 'anchor' so that their son can traverse from the Watchmen world into the DC world.]]

** It is left ambiguous whether he will ultimately be able to live with his actions. He reveals to Dr. Manhattan that he has been having nightmares in which he becomes a monster despite his intentions ''(Yes, that's another parallel to the Black Freighter story),'' and essentially asks whether what he did was right, since it ended well; since he's talking to Dr. Manhattan, the response is, naturally, "Nothing ''ever'' ends, Adrian". The look on his face after that, which is the last panel in which we see him, indicates that he is extremely unsure of himself by that point. He mentioned feeling the weight of the dead on his shoulders.
* ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'': ''Comicbook/LexLuthor'' commits awful crimes -which include the murder of baby [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kal-El]], getting Barbara Gordon's parents killed and who knows what else-, but ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' and ''Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}'' only manage to expose publicly one of his crimes. And Barbara knows that he will buy his way out of jail.

** ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'': Tomas Byde (aka the Duke of Deception) faces no repercussions beyond his own guilt after the Lasso of Truth forces him to face the truth of how he was mislead and the thousands he has killed in aid of the Nazis because of it. He is able to leave and traverse the earth and then go off to confront Ares instead of doing any kind of reparations for what he did.

* Gepetto in ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'' runs an evil empire killing thousands of beings, and enslaving millions. After his empire comes crashing down, the good guys offer him amnesty and move him into an apartment in New York City with all amenities paid. Which was what all the Fables got. Bigby Wolf, the loveable rogue sheriff? Used to eat villages for the giggles. Not a nice man...wolf.

** One issue had a Kelpie who intended to destroy a dam which would flood all of Ponyville and drown the entire populace, which she did by [[MindControl brain washing]] the populace. However when her plan is beaten and her [[WellIntentionedExtremist motive]] turned out to be wanting to help some Water Sprites get to the ocean. She's instantly forgiven by the ponies who drop everything to help her, ending with the now legendary line of "We've all done something silly for a friend" which led to the creation of the [[https://derpiboo.ru/tags/twilight+justifies+evil+meme Twilight Justifies Evil Meme]].

* Ultimate Reed Richards[=/=]The Maker. Even after everything he did to Europe and Asgard, he's given no real punishment, and is even allowed to go back to working for S.H.I.E.L.D. by Nick Fury. When the Ultimate Universe is destroyed by an Incursion, Reed manages to survive on-board a life raft, escaping on to Battleworld. After what goes down there, he somehow managed to get out and live through into the new Marvel Universe afterward, where he restarts his mad science anew.

** King Sombra himself in the Fiendship series gets to end with a "HappilyEverAfter" of running off with his LoveInterest / MoralityPet Radiant Hope after being [[EasilyForgiven Quickly Forgiven]] for all the slavery and the 1000 year exile of a kingdom because LoveRedeems. From the same arc, Queen Chrysalis, who [[VillainTeamUp aided Sombra in fighting the heroes]], [[VillainExitStageLeft flies across the sea]] once she learns he plans to release [[HorrifyingTheHorror the Umbrum]], lacking even any regret like Sombra or the other villains had to mitigate this.